GOP Senate candidate releases violent ‘RINO hunting’ ad aimed at other Republicans

Senate candidate and former Missouri governor Eric Greitens is running an ad that stops just short of calling for violence against fellow Republicans who aren’t part of the “MAGA crew.”

In that ad released Monday, the 48-year-old veteran introduces himself while cocking a rifle.

“I’m Eric Greitens, Navy SEAL,” he says. “And today, we’re going RINO hunting.”

“RINO” is a term used by far right-wing Republicans to describe moderate members of the GOP they accuse of being “Republican In Name Only.”

Greitens then describes RINOs as being cowardly before leading a quartet of heavily armed militants into a house by bashing open the door and tossing a flash grenade into that home.

“Join the MAGA crew, get a RINO hunting permit,” he says once inside the house. “There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.”

The Kansas City Star called its state’s candidate’s ad “ludicrous” and “a new low.”

Woman says Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens taped hands, blindfolded her before forced sex in basement

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Anna Moneymaker/)

On Twitter, Greitens followed up his ad with attacks against Senate minority leader Mitch McConnel — an 80-year-old conservative Republican — as well as President Biden. He also took aim at “the radical left” in his bombastic campaign commercial.

The video immediately made the rounds on social media where Greitens was blamed for inciting the kind of behavior that led to Republican and military veteran Adam Kinzinger saying Sunday he’d received a letter from someone threatening to murder him, his wife and their 5-month-old son, Christian.

Trump critic Rep. Adam Kinzinger reveals death threats over participation in Jan. 6 committee

“He will be executed,” that letter threatened. “But don’t worry! You and Christian will be joining Adam in hell too!”

Kinzinger fell from favor with far-right Republicans after signing onto the Jan. 6 commission to investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Donald Trump fanatics hoping to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election. That committee, which resumes hearings Tuesday, has produced testimony from other Republicans stating Trump tried to stay in power after soundly being defeated in a free and fair election.

Kinzinger — frequently labeled a “RINO” — weighed in on Greiten’s inflammatory rhetoric on Twitter.

“Did you get a tie a girl up in the basement permit?” Kinzinger asked.

He’s referencing a hairdresser’s 2015 accusation that Greiten taped her hands, blindfolded her, forcibly kissed her, then coerced her into oral sex by threatening to go public with a photo taken of the woman while in a compromising position. The case was dropped due to prosecutorial misconduct.

Greiten, who called the charges a “witch hunt,” said sex with the woman was consensual and denied blackmail claims. He soon after resigned his gubernatorial post amid talk of impeachment. The governor had been charged by a grand jury.

Kinzinger added in his tweet, “You’re a very bad man.”

Twitter addressed Greiten’s ad Monday afternoon by attaching a note on its site stating the provocative video “violated the Twitter Rules about abusive behavior,” but that it will remain posted because viewing that footage “may be in the public’s interest.”